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Don't You (From The Vault)

Fearless (Taylor's Version) [2021]

“Don’t You (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]” is a song on Taylor’s re-recorded album Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which was released on April 9, 2021. It used to be an unreleased song, written by Taylor during the creation of her second studio album, Fearless (2008).

Background and Release

Over a decade on from its release, Taylor was re-visiting her second album with the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). As part of her unprecedented battle to regain ownership of her own music, she was re-recording her first six albums, with Fearless being the first to see the light of day. Alongside re-working the album, there were a few surprises – including the unearthing of previously unreleased track “Don’t You (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”. Co-writer Tommy Lee James shared a short story about his writing session with Taylor at the time:

«The crazy thing about this song is that I remember writing with Taylor that day, and I remember her just being really sharp and smart. I knew I was writing a good song. And then normally, back then I’d probably just do like a worktape or whatever, and I would throw it into my Garage Band on my computer just to save it and label it. But for some reason, I never labeled it correctly. And then, all of a sudden, Taylor comes out with ‘Tim McGraw’, and all of a sudden she’s a star. My publisher at the time, she’s going, ‘Where is that song you wrote with Taylor!?’ And I was like…'I cannot find it.'»

Tommy Lee James

From the Vault

Songs “from the vault” were written when Taylor was between the ages of 16 and 18 in the run-up to the release of album two. Back when she initially released Fearless in 2008, these tunes were held back for various reasons, including the fact that you couldn’t cram that many songs onto a physical CD – how very 2008. But in 2021, with the re-recording of her second album, Taylor wanted to let fans “into the entire dreamscape that is my fearless album.” In a post to social media, she shared her excitement: “I’m counting down the minutes til we can all jump into this brave world together, filled with equal parts nostalgia and brand newness. Head first, Fearless

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Lyrical Theme and Production

“Don’t You” describes Taylor running into an ex, and the encounter causing her to remember their past together and feel the pain of their history together that hurt her. She doesn’t understand how this person doesn’t feel the same pain that she does, but resigns herself to moving on with her life, and rejecting the person’s desire to pretend to stay friends. She told Amazon Music in April 2021:

«'Don’t You‘ is a song that I wrote with Tommy Lee James, who is a fantastic writer. We wrote it about the idea of seeing someone that you used to have a thing for and seeing them out in public for the first time after you’ve heard that they’ve moved on. Your life is kind of in shambles, and they have moved on, and are really happy. It’s almost like even them being nice to you hurts you because you’re in such a state of pain and you haven’t moved on yet. So that was a really fun song to write because that’s just a wellspring of emotion to draw from. Jack Antonoff produced it and I think he did a really, really beautiful job of highlighting the melody and letting it be really airy, sort of like a dreamscape.»

Taylor Swift

Live Performance

“Don’t You” received its first live performance acoustically on piano on July 28, 2024, in Munich during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). She mashed the song up with “loml” from THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024).

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Hey
I knew I’d run into you somewhere
It’s been a while, I didn’t mean to stare
I heard she’s nothing like me
I’m sure she’ll make you happy

[Chorus]
But don’t you
Don’t you smile at me and ask me how I’ve been
Don’t you say you’ve missed me if you don’t want me again
You don’t know how much I feel I love you still
So why don’t you
Don’t you

[Verse 2]
Sometimes
I really wish that I could hate you
I’ve tried
But that’s just something I can’t do
My heart knows what the truth is
I swore I wouldn’t do this

[Bridge]
So I’ll walk out of here tonight
Try to go on with my life
And you can say we’re still friends
But I don’t want to pretend
So if I see you again

[Final Chorus]
Don’t you (Don’t you)
Don’t you smile at me and ask me how I’ve been
Don’t you (Don’t you)
Say you’ve missed me if you don’t want me again
You don’t (You don’t)
Know how much I feel I love you still
So why don’t you
Don’t you

[Outro]
Don’t you